MASTER 

NEGATIVE 
NO.  95-82510 


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Author: 


Crissey,  Forrest 


Title: 


Since  forty  years  ago 


Place: 


Chicago 


Date: 


[1915] 


MASTER   NEGATIVE  # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DIVISION 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -  EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


Business 

D986 

F15 


Crissey,  Forrest,  1864- 

Since  forty  years  ago,  by  Forrest  Crissey. 
An  account  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  Chicago 
and  its  first  department  store.  The  story  of 
centralized  shopping  imder  one  roof.   Its 
unique  location  and  events  connected  wit>i  its 
history.   Chicago,  The  Fair,  cl915. 

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THE  LIBRARIES 


Graduate 

SCHOOL  OF  BUSINESS 

Library 


SCHOOL  OF 

BUSINESS 

LIBKARY 


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Art  a.ccourt't:  of*  tKe  oiri^ixx  artd  d]:*o>vtK 

of*  CKica-go  Arid  its  First I>cjj£trtm&nt 

St€>jrG  TKe  stor^  of*  ceiatirfiilizod. 

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-witH  its  Hist< 


|| 


Pi»i-vatol;y"    p>i*irttod    £tn.d   jpir»osoirvtod 
j6>^  the:  fair  •  STAT£  -ADAMS  O  DBARBORN 

in  commeinor-atioix  of  its  40t^  Al^niveI•salry 
Copyright  1915  by  The  Fair,  Chicago 


,^ 


The  Sounder  of  The  Fair,  was  born  on  January  27,  1849,  in 
Tetrow,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  Germany.  He  came  to  America 
in  1858  and  his  parents  established  a  home  in  Chicago.  Here  he 
attended  school  and  received  religious  instruction  in  the  German 
Lutheran  Church.    He  died  in  Chicago  on  January  4,  1900. 


II 


II 


ca 


3     J     > 


ttite 


iirr  THAT  swift  and  wonderful  changes,  what  a  world 

\A/  of  activity,  what  a  marvelous  labor  of  city  building, 

J  what  an  unparalleled  development  of  business  and  social 

-^life  have  been  witnessed  in  this  city  of  ours  since  forty 

^years  ago ! 

(/)  Magic  is  the  only  word  for  the  making  of  a  city  like 
/*>  Chicago  that  has  transformed  from  a  feeble  trading 
!ipost  to  a  mighty  metropolis  within  the  span  of  a  single 
-'Century,  and  from  a  town  of  small  stores  to  a  retail 
^metropolis  within  a  period  of  two-score  years. 

*;  How  all  this  happened  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
stories  that  could  possibly  be  told.  It  crowds  within 
one  human  lifetime  almost  the  complete  epic  of  civiliza- 
tion. What  a  marvelous  movie  film  is  the  mind  of  the 
man  or  woman  who  happened  to  be  born  in  Chicago 
when  it  was  a  sprawling  pioneer  village  and  has  lived 
to  see  it  become  America's  second  city!  And  many  an 
"Old  Settler"  in  Chicago  has  personally  spanned  the 
great  gap  between  these  two  extremes  and  seen  every 
step  of  this  development.  What  film  feature  ever  thrown 
upon  the  screen  can  compare  in  scope  and  vividness 
with  such  a  memory  reel?    None. 

Every  shifting  of  scene  drives  home  the  fact  that 
Business  and  not  War  is  the  great  Writer  of  History. 
Battles  may  decide  the  boundaries  between  countries 
on  the  map,  but  Commerce  is  the  great  chemist  that 
fuses  many  and  strange  peoples  into  new  and  united 
nations ;  it  is  the  hand  that  moves  the  hands  of  the  war- 


«  *       *  t 


•■    •         • 


'     • .  « 


Fort  Dearborn,  1857 


Courtesy  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 


makers;  it  is  the  power  that  pushes  pioneers  into  trackless 
wildernesses  and  that  breaks  the  trails  for  the  finer 
things  that  follow. 

There  is  no  place  in  the  world  where  this  process  has 
been  so  swiftly,  so  splendidly  demonstrated  as  in  Chicago's 
down-town  district.  This  has  been  the  proving  ground 
for  many  of  the  greatest  merchandising  ideas  that  the 
world  has  yet  known. 

First  look  at  the  way  in  which  Civilization  was  here 
crystallized  out  of  Savagery. 

A  log  cabin  standing  on  the  point  of  land  where  the 
Chicago  River  flows  into  the  lake  is  the  first  link  between 
barbarism  and  civilization,  the  earliest  symbol  of  Com- 
merce, for  it  shelters  the  French  trader,  Le  Mai,  and  his 
squaw  wife. 

Next  comes  Government  and  Trade  traveling  almost 
by  the  same  boat  —  for  in  1 803  Captain  Whistler  of  the 
United  States  Army,  his  son,  Lieutenant  William  Whistler, 
and  their  wives,  together  with  a  small  company  of  sol- 
diers arrive  for  the  building  of  the  first  Fort  Dearborn, 
followed  in  the  Spring  by  John  Kinzie,  an  adventurous 
silversmith  who  desired  to  become  an  Indian  trader. 
Kinzie  brought  his  courageous  wife  and  her  daughter  by 
a  former  husband.  Kinzie  found  profitable  employment 
for  his  skill  in  making  silver  trinkets  to  catch  the  fancy 
of  the  Indians  and  pots  and  kettles  of  copper  for  their 
use.  Here  was  the  foundation  of  Manufacture  and  Fine 
Arts.  The  Kinzie  cabin  stood  on  the  ground  now  oc- 
cupied by  Kirk's  Soap  Factory. 

Now  we  come  to  the  important  fact  that  when  once 
Trade  strikes  a  taproot  into  the  soil  it  is  generally  there 


A 


1 


The  Fair  in  1875 


i 


to  Stay.  You  may  destroy  every  sign  of  Commerce 
from  the  place  where  it  has  been  planted,  and  say: 
"This  spot  is  not  for  Trade:"  But  return  after  a  little 
and  you  will  find  that  your  edict  has  been  mocked,  that 
Trade  has  sprung  up  from  that  soil  like  thistles  and  that 
Business  cannot  be  banished  from  any  place  where  the 
atmosphere  of  natural  Opportunity  is  favorable  to  its 
growth. 

The  fate  of  the  settlement  that  grew  up  about  the  first 
Fort  Dearborn  teaches  this  lesson  with  a  tragic  vivid- 
ness. In  a  single  day  it  was  completely  wiped  out. 
That  was  when  the  War  of  1812  terrorized  the  country. 
The  Indians  massacred  most  of  the  soldiers  and  settlers, 
captured  a  few  and  scattered  the  remainder.    The  fort 


The  Sauganash  Tavern 


Courtesy  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 


\ 


j 


1 


was  burned  and  Barbarism  shouted  to  Civilization  and 
Commerce:  '*You  are  as  dead  here  as  if  the  face  of  a 
white  man  had  never  been  seen  on  these  shores. "  But 
in  four  years,  the  government  having  re-established  the 
fort,  Trade  was  back  at  its  pioneer  task.  Kinzie  the 
Silversmith  was  again  on  the  ground  in  his  old  cabin  with 
his  brave  wife  and  children  —  plying  his  clever  hammer. 
It  was  almost  as  if  Destiny  had  lifted  a  warning  hand 
and  declared: 

**I  have  set  this  place  apart  for  Trade.  Neither 
fire  nor  sword  shall  prevail  against  it.  I  have  decreed 
that  here  Business  shall  work  its  wonders.  Commerce, 
not  the  Indian  medicine  man,  shall  here  develop  its 
mighty  magic.  This  spot,  now  desolate  and  in  ashes,  is 
forever  dedicated  as  a  perpetual  proving  ground  for  the 
greatest  principles  of  Modem  Merchandising." 


The  Fair  in  1888 


The  First  Court  House  and  Jail 


Courtesy  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 


One  of  the  jiext  important  steps  in  the  development 
of  this  new  civilization  was  the  coming  of  a  black- 
smith, in  1823.  The  advent  of  David  McKee  was  hailed 
with  delight  by  the  settlers  of  the  whole  country.  He 
set  up  his  anvil  and  bellows  in  a  little  log  shop  where 
the  old  Wells  Street  Station  of  the  Chicago  and  North- 
western Railroad  formerly  stood.  The  mending  of 
traps,  guns  and  tools  and  the  making  of  many  forms  of 
implements  gave  this  first  smithy  his  main  occupation. 

What  most  concerned  these  rebuilders  of  this  wonder- 
ful outpost  of  Trade  was  the  re-establishment  of  those 
beginnings  of  Business  that  the  Indians  thought  they 
had  wiped  out  in  the  massacre  of  1812.  One  by  one, 
the  elements  necessary  to  make  the  little  community 
more  and  more  self-sustaining  were  welcomed.     It  was 


The  First  Post  Office 


Courtesy  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 


i 


a  big  day  for  the  settlement  when  it  gained  its  first 
harness-maker  on  May  29,  1833,  in  the  person  of  Silas 
B.  Cobb,  afterwards  one  of  Chicago's  millionaires.  His 
shop  was  on  the  spot  designated  in  an  early  Chicago  direc- 
tory as  171  Lake  Street.  Then  the  opening  of  its  first 
butcher  shop  and  slaughtering  house,  in  1827,  by 
Archibald  Clybourn,  marked  the  beginning  of  the  great 
meat  industry  in  Chicago. 

No  doubt  the  opening  of  the  first  millinery  shop  in  the 
settlement  by  Mrs.  Abram  Gale,  in  1835,  was  one  of  the 
most  significant  steps  in  the  evolution  of  this  great  Trade 
center.  A  community  whose  commerce  can  be  conducted 
without  a  millinery  store  is  certainly  not  high  in  the  scale 
of  civilization.  Perhaps  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
society — in  the  more  formal  sense  of  the  term,  at  least — 
began  in  Chicago  with  the  opening  of  this  unpretentious 
shop  on  Lake  Street  between  Wells  and  LaSalle  Streets, 
as   described    in  present-day  terms. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  the  present,  the  opening 
of  a  little  millinery  shop  in  a  log  cabin  seems  almost 
a  trifling  matter.  But  it  was  far  from  that.  It  stands 
in  the  business  history  of  Chicago  as  her  first  step  in 
distinctly  feminine  trade.  Subtract  from  Chicago's 
commerce  of  to-day  that  part  of  it  depending  wholly 
upon  women  and  the  reduction  would  be  appalling. 

But  in  these  pictures  of  the  processes  by  which 
Trade  transforms  a  savage  wilderness  into  a  wonder- 
city,  we  must  not  overlook  the  first  tavern,  the  first 
school,  and  the  first  church.  These  are  named,  not  in 
the  order  of  their  importance,  but  of  their  coming. 

When  Mark  Beaubien  came  in  1826  and  soon  opened 
to  the  public  the  cabin  from  which  his  famous  Sauga- 


I 


nash  tavern  was  later  constructed,  the  term  "down  town" 
took  on  a  new  definition;  thereafter  * 'down  town"  stood 
for  the  tavern  where  the  genial  Frenchman  met  all  comers 
and  made  them  welcome  to  the  settlement.  But  the 
capacity  of  this  tavern  was  limited,  and  as  the  influx  of  set- 
tlers and  transients  increased,  the  Green  Tree  was  built, 
and  the  borders  of  "down  town"  were  once  more 
broadened. 

The  civic  center  of  the  Thirties  was  really  the  forks, 
where  the  Post  Office  with  the  Sauganash,  Wolf  and 
Miller  taverns  on  their  respective  sides  of  the  Y-shaped 
river,  constituted  the  down  town.  And  it  is  from  that 
Y-shaped  junction  that  the  present  emblem  of  Chicago 
has  been  derived. 

Naturally  the  whole  social  life  of  the  young  com- 
munity centered  in  the  taverns  where  the  news  from  the 
outside   world   was    .^.^^,....,^ 

mi 


first  received,  where 
each  prairie  schooner 
from  Indiana  or  from 
"Egypt"  or  from 
back  East  halted 
and  where  all  the 
dances  and  gala 
events  of  the  embryo 
city  were  held.  Al- 
most it  might  have 
been  said  that  Chi- 
cago had  no  "down 
town"  until  her  first 
tavern  opened  its 
hospitable  doors. 


State  Street  Entrance 


HOUSEFURNISHING  DEPARTMENT 


Education  came  early  to  the  little  settlement.  In 
1816  a  discharged  soldier  taught  some  eight  or  ten 
pupils  in  a  little  cabin  in  the  Kinzie  garden.  Later, 
Miss  Eliza  Chappell  opened  another  log-cabin  school  on 
the  southwest  corner  of  State  and  South  Water  Streets. 
It  was  not  until  1833,  however,  that  a  public  school  was 
established  and  started  with  an  attendance  of  twoity- 
five  pupils.  At  last  Trade  had  obtained  so  firm  a  foot- 
hold that  she  could  plant  the  seeds  of  Education  and 
provide  for  their  cultivation. 

A  new  and  distinct  flavor  was  injected  into  the  ever-; 
broadening  meaning  of  the  homely  phrase  *'down  town 
when,   in  the   early   Thirties,  the  first  churches  were 
organized  and  three  houses  of  worship  erected.     Can 

you  not  realize  some- 
thing of  what  that 
meant  to  the  pioneer 
women  who  had  not 
been  inside  a  church 
for  many  years  and 
who  hungered  for 
some  of  the  refine- 
ments and  formali- 
ties of  life  as  only  a 
woman's  heart  can 
hunger  after  years  of 
exile  in  the  wilder- 
ness? No  great 
amount  of  either  im- 
agination or  piety  is 
necessary  to  picture 
the  throbs  of  excite- 
TT  ment    with   which 

Adams  Street  Entrance  i i i^nu      w  i  v* 


those  pioneer  women  who  had  braved  the  long  period  of 
churchless  Sabbaths,  put  on  their  modest  finery  and 
prepared  to  walk  down  the  aisles  and  take  their  places 
in  the  family  pews  for  the  first  time.  Dressing  for  the 
dances  at  the  taverns  was  tame  compared  with  the 
novelty  of  "getting  ready  for  church." 

And  this  is  how  the  spirit  of  Trade  planted  civili- 
zation in  the  wilderness  where  Chicago  now  stands  and 
started  the  great  stream  of  Commerce  that  has  been 
swelling  to  greater  propx>rtions  with  each  succeeding 
year.  As  late  as  1832  Chicago's  first  frame  store  building 
was  put  up  and  her  first  Post  Office  was  established 
only  the  year  preceding  that.  Perhaps  nothing  suggests 
the  wonderful  swiftness  of  Chicago's  development  to 
its  "more  than  two  millions"  quite  so  graphically  as 
the  simple  statement  that  the  first  high  school  here  was 
opened  just  fifty-nine  years  ago.  Only  eighty-two  years 
ago,  in  1833,  the  first 
"town  board"  of  the 
village  of  Chicago  was 
elected  and  Thomas 
J.  V.  Owen  was  named 
as  its  President. 

While  Chicago 
incorporated  as  a  city 
in  1837,  and  elected 
William  B.  Ogden  as 
its  first  Mayor,  it  was 
really  a  trading  town, 
a  sprawling  village  as 
late    as   the    early 

Forties.  Dearborn  Street  Entrance 


.—...4 


Furniture  Department 


From  a  certain  day  in  1833  when  the  schooner 
Napoleon  sailed  out  of  the  harbor  with  Chicago's 
first  export  shipment  of  native  products,  the  Wholesale 
Period  of  her  trade  began.  True,  great  fortunes  and 
reputations  were  made  in  retailing  during  that  time, 
but  the  emphasis  of  development  was  along  wholesale 
lines.  Brilliant  history  was  made  in  wholesale  methods 
in  that  era,  and  wonderful  work  was  done  in  developing 
a  sound  credit  and  sales  system.  However,  few  new, 
important,  or  original  ideas  in  retailing  were  developed 
in  this  time.  Growth  in  the  retail  field  followed  along 
conventional  lines  until  1875  when  a  new  force  entered 
the  retail  arena  so  quietly  that  its  presence  was  scarcely 
noticed  until  it  had  gathered  a  momentum  that  carried 
it  on  from  an  obscure  beginning  to  a  marvelous  success. 

This  force  was  the  principle  of  Centralized  Shop- 
ping, of  Retail  Merchandising  for  the  Millions, 
instead  of  for  the  few.  It  embodied  the  Down  Town 
Spirit  as  nothing  before  it  had  ever  embodied  it. 

It  was  just  forty  years  ago  when  E.  J.  Lehmann 
founded  The  Fair.  This  event  was  so  big  with  com- 
mercial consequences  that  it  is  worthy  of  a  far  greater 
celebration  than  the  issuance  of  this  historical  mono- 
graph; it  might  well  be  generally  memorialized  by  the 
whole  merchandising  world. 

Did  E.  J.  Lehmann  recognize  his  plan  as  a  great 
Principle?  Did  he  see  it  as  one  of  the  greatest  mer- 
chandising discoveries  thus  far  brought  to  light?  I  doubt 
it.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  learn  from  those  who  knew 
him  personally,  he  simply  had  a  shrewd  idea  that  he 
had  hjt  upon  a  scheme  that  would  ''draw  trade  down 
town."     But  if  a  man  with  the  far-reaching  vision  of 


V-' 


Jewelry  Department 


a  Moses  had  said  to  him :  **  This  will  bring  you  millions, " 
he  would  probably  have  laughed  at  that  prophecy  as 
an  extravagant  joke.  Really  he  was  opening  up  an  ocean 
of  wealth  when  he  thought  that  he  was  merely  tapping 
a  barrel  of  "good  business. " 

But  just  what  was  it  that  Mr.  Lehmann  discovered 
that  revolutionized  the  whole  history  of  Retailing? 

Everything  for  Everybody  under  one  roof,  at  a  lower 
price  —  and  that  price  an  odd  price.  Here  you  have 
the  whole  thing  crammed  into  a  nutshell. 

He  saw  the  immense  economic  strength  of  sheer 
Volume. 

The  broken  nickel  price  was  a  brilliant  novelty  that 
made  a  marvelous  appeal  to  the  people.  The  chance 
to  **save  the  odd  cents**  was  an  allurement  that  went 
straight  to  the  thrift  of  the  frugal  housewife  who  had  been 
raised  upon  the  sound  and  ancient  economic  doctrine 
**Look  out  for  the  Pennies  and  the  Dimes  will  take  care 
of  themselves. " 

The  housewife  reasoned  well  when  she  said  to  herself : 
**Here  is  an  article  that  cost  a  store  five  cents.  And 
because  it  has  never  been  fashionable  for  a  storekeeper 
to  break  a  nickel  he  charges  ten  cents — an  advance  of  a 
hundred  percent — for  it.  But  The  Fair  asks  only  seven 
cents.  It  is  less  afraid  to  break  a  nickel  and  a  precedent 
than  to  take  a  toll  of  a  hundred  percent  profit." 

In  combination  the  two  ideas — Everything  for  Every- 
body under  one  roof  and  the  odd-penny  bargain  price  — 
seemed  to  work  a  veritable  miracle  and  make  the  cur- 
rents of  retail  trade  turn  about  and  flow  upstream.    They 


Grocery  and  Meat  Department 


t 


i 


I 


put  competition   into  retail    buying   and  transformed 
family  shopping  into  a  high  adventure. 

The  genius  of  Mr.  Lehmann's  idea  lay  in  the  fact 
that  he  recognized  this  trait  of  human  nature  and  saw 
the  extent  to  which  it  could  be  used  to  move  trade 
to  centralize  shopping.  He  was  himself  a  poor  man  and 
this  circumstance  put  him  in  position  to  realize  the  prob- 
lems of  the  people,  the  pressure  upon  the  ordinary 
family  to  economize  and  the  appeal  to  the  struggling  house- 
wife made  by  the  opportunity  to  save  even  a  few  cents 
on  each  purchase  for  the  home.  Besides,  the  public 
appetite  for  economy  was  especially  keen  at  that  time 
from  the  fact  that  the  country  was  still  in  the  grip  of 
the  financial  panic  of  1 873 .  Any  chance  to  buy  cheaply 
was  not  to  be  overlooked. 

His  philosophy  was  simple:  **Show  the  American 
Housewife  that  she  can  save  money  by  trading  with  you 
and  you  will  win  her  patronage,  i^D  the  more  excite- 
ment AND  COMPETITION  YOU  CAN  PUT  INTO  HER  SHOPPING 
THE  BETTER  SHE'lL  LIKE  IT." 

This  was  about  all  that  Mr.  Lehmann  saw  when,  in 
1875,  he  opened  up  his  little  stock  of  jewelry,  notions, 
crockery,  hardware,  and  kitchen  utensils.  Later,  he 
realized  more  and  more  that  in  the  one  word  Volume 
lay  the  real  secret  of  expansion.  Volume  in  purchases 
would  compel  Volume  in  sales.  Volume  meant  smaller 
profits  but  more  profits.  So  he  went  out  after  Volume, 
Right  here  was  the  real  foundation  of  the  Department 
Store  —  and  History  is  clear  and  definite  in  giving  to 
Mr.  E.  J.  Lehmann  uncontested  credit  for  founding  the 
first  Department  Store.    ''%y''&,:S.i  AS^Ba^L^"''""''  ''°^-  ^' 


The 


The  building  in  which  this  notable  demonstration 
in  centralized  merchandising  was  sheltered  was  a  little, 
one-story,  frame  structure  that  would  to-day  be  called 
a  shack.  It  contained  only  twelve  hundred  and  eighty 
square  feet  of  floor  space  and  stood  on  the  west  side 
of  State  Street,  just  sixteen  feet  north  of  Adams.  When 
it  opened  there  was  hardly  a  more  insignificant  store 
in  that  part  of  the  city,  but  it  was  destined  to  do  as  much 
as  any  other  enterprise,  if  not  more,  to  make  State  Street 
the  great  permanent  retail  shopping  thoroughfare  that 
it  is  to-day.  The  whole  investment  made  by  Mr.  Lehmann 
when  he  threw  open  his  doors  for  the  first  day's  business 
was  less  than  a  thousand  dollars.  Mark  these  two  original 
figures:  twelve  hundred  and  eighty  feet  of  floor  space; 
one  thousand  dollars  capital. 

What  extensions  have  forty  years  written  in  the 
expansion  column  opposite  these  entries?  There  is  no 
secret  as  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Lehmann's  great  monu- 
ment to  the  principle  of  down-town  shopping  contains 
798,000  square  feet  of  floor  space  and  about  eight  miles  of 
counters  and  show-cases.  As  to  the  investment.  I  can 
only  conjecture  that  it  is  certainly  high  in  the  millions. 

But  let  us  get  back  to  the  little  store  from  which 
this  mighty  volume  of  retail  merchandising  started  and 
see  what  nourished  a  growth  so  marvelous. 

There  is  more  than  a  mere  hint  of  the  real  secret 
of  that  success  in  the  story  of  Mr.  Lehmann's  first  sign. 
A  few  doors  away,  around  the  comer,  was  the  paint 
shop  of  W.  P.  Nelson  —  whose  sons  have  since  become 
celebrated  as  interior  decorators  —  and  to  this  neighbor 
he  explained  that  he  was  going  to  call  his  store  "The 


i 


Fair  "  for  two  reasons :  he  wished  to  imply  to  those  reading 
the  sign  that  fair  dealing  would  be  given  all  customers 
and  also  that  the  store  was  like  a  fair  because  it  offered 
many  and  different  things  for  sale  at  a  cheap  price.  The 
sign  must  not  only  proclaim  the  cheapness  of  the  prices 
offered,  but  it  must  also  be  cheap  itself,  Mr.  Lehmann 
added  —  and  he  must  be  permitted  to  pay  for  it  a  dollar 
at  a  time  as  he  could  spare  it  from  his  business.  The 
bargain  was  struck   and   the  sign   painted.      It  read: 


THE  FAIR 
CHEAP 


,^-~resf 


I 


This  crisp  sign,  with  its  one  descriptive  word,  pitched 
the  key  of  the  enterprise  so  clearly  that  he  who  ran 
might  read.  There  was  a  flavor  to  the  word  **cheap"  in 
those  days  of  prolonged  financial  depression  that  caught 
the  eye  and  stopped  the  feet  of  the  passer.  In  just  four 
years  the  "cheap"  store  had  so  expanded  that  it  absorbed 
the  shop  in  which  the  sign  was  painted  —  and  paid  for 
on  the  installment  plan. 

It  had  started  with  sixteen  feet  on  State  Street  and, 
in  four  years,  multiplied  its  total  frontage  by  four- 
teen. How  The  Fair  pushed  out  in  every  direction, 
absorbed  one  building  after  another  and  finally  found 
itself  "way  'round  on  Dearborn  Street"  is  too  long  a 
chapter  to  be  told  in  detail.  But  its  growth  may  be 
suggested  in  a  sentence:  In  an  atmosphere  of  failure  it 
thrived;  as  its  neighbors  shriveled  and  collapsed  under 
the  frost  of  financial  depression,  it  expanded  and  eagerly 
took  the  room  vacated  by  the  outgoing  enterprises. 


WoMEN*9  Suit  Department 


The  absorption  of  Stems'  Dollar  Store  is  typical 
of  many  other  passages  in  this  period  of  The  Fair's 
expansion. 

By  this  time  the  merchant  who  had  bought  a  "cheap" 
sign  for  a  Cheap  Store  had  turned  over  his  stock  so 
many  times  and  had  broken  so  many  nickels  in  commerce 
with  the  common  people  that  he  felt  a  splendid  faith 
in  the  new  principle  of  Centralized  Shopping  and 
** plunged"  to  the  extent  of  buying  the  entire  stock  of  the 
Sterns  store  at  the  Sheriff's  sale.  This  took  no  little 
courage,  for  it  was  a  fifty-thousand-dollar  stock. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Lehmann  had  learned  how  to 
advertise.  He  found  the  mediums  that  reached  the 
thrifty  people  who  were  counting  their  pennies,  and  he  had 
learned  how  to  tell  his  story  so  that  these  eager  savers 
came  down  town  to  the  great  Central  Shopping  place 
to  trade  —  because  it  was  cheaper  to  do  so. 

In  those  days  E.  J.  Lehmann  deliberately  ignored 
the  trade  of  the  rich  and  prosperous;  he  was  too 
busy  meeting  the  requirements  of  working  people  who 
wanted  bargains  and  who  were  scrambling  to  save  the 
pieces  of  the  nickels  that  he  broke  for  them,  to  pay  atten- 
tion to  the  demands  of  those  who  bought  expensive 
articles  and  had  not  yet  cultivated  a  consistent  appetite 
for  odd  pennies. 

Certainly  these  events  made  merchandising  history 
with  a  sensational  swiftness  that  contributed  directly 
to  two  interesting  results :  making  State  Street  the  great 
permanent  shopping  thoroughfare  —  the  Woman's  Street 
of  Chicago  —  and  opening  up  to  Chicago  newspapers  the 
immense  possibilities  of  retail  advertising  and  its  revenue. 


Silk  Departmint 


Certainly  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  to-day  many 
thousands  of  newspapers  are  bought  solely  to  secure  the 
shopping  news,  in  the  display  pages  of  the  great  retail 
advertisers,  instead  of  to  get  the  general  news  of  the 
world's  happenings.  In  the  field  of  retail  advertising  The 
Fair  has  been  a  pathfinder.  As  far  as  Chicago  records 
show,  it  gave  the  newspapers  their  first  double-page 
advertisement.  This  was  on  May  3 1st,  1885.  Its  adver- 
tising blazed  the  trail  followed  by  almost  the  entire 
retail  trade  of  the  country.  It  did  not  hesitate  to  use 
sensational  means  to  put  its  precedent-breaking  campaign 
on  its  feet.  Literally  it  sold  silver  dollars  for  ninety  cents 
and  five  dollar  gold  pieces  for  $4.75.  It  taught  the  public 
"If  you  see  it  in  an  advertisement  of  The  Fair,  it's  true" 
—  and  it  is  as  resourceful  and  progressive  to-day  as  it 
was  under  the  personal  generalship  of  the  elder  Lehmann. 
In  connection  with  its  thirty-sixth  anniversary  sale  it 
used  twenty  pages  of  advertising  display  in  each  of  two 
Chicago  Sunday  papers.  Newspaper  records  show  that 
The  Fair  has  always  been  a  pacemaker  in  advertising. 

In  those  earlier  days  when  The  Fair  absorbed  the  Mar- 
cus Sterns  ''Economy  Block''  and  the  James  P.  Dalton 
House  Furnishing  Store,  everything  was  grist  that  came  in 
its  way.  It  literally  swallowed  the  restaurant  business 
of  Alexander  Brothers,  installed  it  in  a  big  church-like 
building  decorated  with  large  trees,  palms,  and  a  profusion 
of  shrubs  and  vines  and  made  this  unique  addition  to 
its  line  a  great  attraction  to  the  trade — a  novelty  feature 
at  that   time  unknown  to  department    store    keeping. 

In  the  art  of  buying  Mr.  Lehmann  displayed  the 
same  unfailing  genius  for  big  merchandising  that  had 
made  him  the  most  talked  of  figure  on  State  Street. 


I 


In  1885,  at  a  sheriff's  sale,  he  secured  the  stock 
of  "The  Famous"  at  a  price  that  enabled  The  Fair 
to  attract  thousands  of  new  customers  to  its  counters. 
But  it  was  later,  in  1887,  when  Mr.  Lehmann  made  his 
master  stroke  by  securing  at  a  court  sale  not  only  the 
entire  stock  of  "The  Bankrupt  Store"  but  the  lease  of 
the  store  and  its  location. 

It  is  one  thing  to  handle  the  buying,  the  finances, 
and  the  organization  of  a  store  small  enough  to  be 
supervised  in  all  of  its  branches  —  almost  in  all  of  its 
details  —  by  one  man  whose  interest  in  its  success  is 
supreme;  the  test  of  a  man's  bigness  comes  when  his 
business  expands  to  proportions  that  compel  him  to 
become  a  general,  trusting  the  details  of  buying,  selling 
and  accounting  to  others  and  devoting  himself  to  a  broad 
administrative  oversight  of  the  enterprise. 

While  the  ideas  of  big  buying,  of  big  advertising,  of 
**Every thing  for  Everybody  under  one  roof;"  of  retail 
merchandising  for  the  millions ;  of  down-town  shopping 
for  those  that  would  save  their  pennies ;  of  "Your  money 
back  if  goods  are  unsatisfactory;"  and  of  an  almost 
unlimited  variety  from  which  to  choose  may  not  all 
have  been  definitely  defined  in  E.  J.  Lehmann  s  mind 
when  he  hung  out  the  sign  "The  Fair  — Cheap;"  they 
were  there  in  the  germ  and  came  out  naturally  as  the 
store  developed. 

In  1886  Mr.  Lehmann  had  so  greatly  increased  his 
business  that  he  put  his  enterprise  into  the  form  of  a 
corporation.  A  very  convincing  proof  that  the  vision  of 
this  merchant  included  a  department  store  in  the  com- 
plete sense  of  the  term  is  found  in  the  fact  that  whenever 
he  was  able  to  take  on  more  space  he  added  a  new  depart- 


ment instead  of  expanding  an  old  one.  He  even  rented 
space  privileges  to  those  who  would  put  in  new  lines. 
Later,  of  course,  he  acquired  these  departments,  as  his 
financial  strength  increased.  Always  his  aim  appeared 
to  be  "Everything  for  Everybody  under  one  roof." 

Business  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds  in  the  latter 
Eighties  and  that  period  saw  two  changes  of  great 
importance:  the  capitalization  was  first  increased,  and 
the  first  store  —  the  original  one-story  "shack" — was 
torn  down  and  rebuilt  to  the  height  of  three  stories. 

Even  then  the  ultimate  success  of  The  Fair  was 
so  little  realized  that  this  building  was  considered  a 
rather  venturesome  undertaking.  But  while  it  was 
still  regarded  as  a  novelty  by  the  public,  the  man- 
agement of  The  Fair  realized  that  Down-Town  trading 
would  swamp  them  like  a  tidal  wave  if  they  did  not 
speedily  begin  big  constructive  plans  far  greater  than  Mr. 
Lehmann  had  dared  dream  in  the  brightest  days  of  his 
earlier  successes. 

Nothing  short  of  a  building  containing  the  present 
great  floor  area  would  be  sufficient  to  serve  the  demands 
of  those  who  were  certain  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  down- 
town shoppers  in  the  next  few  years.  Therefore  a  quiet 
campaign  for  the  securing  of  long-time  leases  was  started 
— and  was  ended  with  success  in  time  to  allow  the  wreck- 
ing to  start  in  the  summer  of  1890. 

Instead  of  stopping  business,  the  work  of  construction 
was  so  handled  as  to  prove  a  valuable  advertisement. 
To  build  a  skyscraper  about  a  great  store  without  stopping 
business  for  an  hour  was  then  a  greater  novelty  than  it 
is  now  —  but  in  the  skill  with  which  this  problem  was 


Millinery  Department 


handled,  The  Fair  maintained  its  reputation  for  the 
establishment  of  valuable  precedents,  for  the  working 
out  of  original  ideas. 

The  great  building  was  constructed  in  sections  — 
practically  in  quarters — and  on  the  completion  of 
each  unit  the  goods  and  counters  were  shifted  between 
the  usual  closing  hour  of  a  Saturday  night  and  the  following 
Monday  morning.  The  Dearborn  Street  half  was  fin- 
ished in  1891  and  the  entire  structure  completed  in  1896. 

E.  J.  Lehmann,  the  founder  of  the  enterprise,  has 
been  gone  for  many  years  —  but  The  Fair,  his  Big  Idea 
of  * '  Everything  for  Everybody  under  one  roof  "  at  a  cheap 
price,  has  never  lost  anything  of  the  momentum  that 
it  gained  under  its  founder.  It  has  given  a  consistent 
example  of  acceleration,  of  steadily  increasing  progress. 
Under  the  sons  of  its  founder  it  has  maintained  its 
record  for  the  development  of  big  retailing  principles. 

One  of  these  later  developments  is  the  gaining  of 
a  new  constituency  without  the  weakening  of  the 
old  source  of  support.  Standards  of  living  have  changed 
greatly  since  the  senior  Lehmann  put  the  word  "cheap" 
underneath  the  name  of  his  store  on  the  sign  that  he 
hung  on  the  front  of  his  little  "shack."  And  the  most 
radical  changes  in  those  standards  have  taken  place 
within  the  last  few  years  when  hardly  a  man  who  knew 
the  store  in  its  earlier  stages  has  had  a  hand  in  its 
management. 

The  task  of  those  in  control  of  the  destinies  of 
The  Fair  in  these  later  years  has  been  that  of  advanc- 
ing its  policy  to  keep  in  step  with  those  changing 
standards.    Thousands  of  customers  that  traded  at  the 


ill 


little  store  on  State  Street,  and  at  the  larger  store  as  the 
enterprise  expanded,  have  become  wealthy  or  at  least 
prosperous.  The  mechanic  of  to-day  enjoys  an  income 
and  indulges  in  expenditures  that  were  possible  only  to 
the  successful  business  man  of  the  Seventies  and  Eighties. 
Even  the  day  laborer  of  the  present  enjoys  comforts 
and  luxuries  that  were  not  dreamed  of  in  the  pioneer 
period  of  the  store's  development. 

The  Fair  has  kept  pace  with  this  advancement 
of  standard  of  living.  It  is  still,  as  it  always  has  been 
and  undoubtedly  always  will  be,  the  store  of  the  people, 
the  down-town  shopping  center  for  the  Savers,  the  market 
place  for  the  Thrifty.  This  policy  is  permanent;  it  was, 
so  to  speak,  put  into  the  comer  stone  of  the  first  building 
and  will  always  stand. 

But  will  the  family  that  formed  the  habit  of  trading 
at  The  Fair  long  ago,  and  that  has  become  prosperous 
to  the  point  of  wealth,  be  obliged  to  go  elsewhere  in 
order  to  buy  the  things  suited  to  its  new  estate  —  its 
enlarged  fortunes?    No. 

To-day  The  Fair  carries  a  satisfying  selection  of 
expensive  goods,  as  well  as  the  Cheapest  of  Everything 
—  and  everything  between  those  two  extremes. 

Perhaps  no  point  of  policy  has  contributed  more  to 
the  marvelous  growth  of  The  Fair  than  its  rule  that 
all  articles  must  be  exactly  as  advertised.  The  first 
task  of  the  advertising  manager  is  to  see  that  this  rule 
is  not  infringed.  There  is  no  way  by  which  a  depart- 
ment manager  may  more  effectively  invite  trouble  than 
to  give  the  advertising  manager  a  misleading  and  inac- 
curate description  of  an  article.    The  Fair  is  keenly  alive 


I 


0 


to  the  fact  that  the  confidence  of  the  buying  public  is 
the  greatest  asset  of  retail  merchandising  concerns. 

Trustworthy  merchandise  must  always  be  the  run- 
ning-mate of  Honest  Advertising,  and  this  teamwork 
partnership  is  carefully  maintained  by  The  Fair.  No 
transaction  is  considered  closed  by  the  mere  exchange 
of  the  goods  for  the  money  called  for  on  the  price-ticket 
attached.  The  real  close  of  the  deal  comes  when  the 
customer  has  found  the  goods  to  be  satisfactory. 

Still  another  point  of  policy  that  has  done  much  to 
make  this  pioneer  establishment  in  the  field  of  Cen- 
tralized Shopping  the  most  popular  of  its  kind  is  a 
systematic  consideration  for  the  convenience  and  the 
comfort  of  its  customers.  The  branch  Post  Office,  the 
quiet  and  inviting  writing-room,  the  big  general  waiting 
room  for  men  and  women,  and  the  nursery  for  mothers 
and  babies ;  the  free  wrapping  counters  where  customers 
may  have  their  hand-parcels  wrapped  to  suit  their  con- 
venience and  the  check  room  where  patrons  may  leave 
their  bundles  without  charge  are  features  that  illustrate 
this  attitude.  In  fact,  the  Credit  Department  is  looked 
upon  by  the  management  as  a  convenience  installed 
to  serve  the  customers.  Originally  The  Fair  was  strictly 
a  cash  store  but  the  management  finally  became  convinced 
that,  as  a  matter  of  accommodation  to  customers,  a 
credit  department  should  be  provided. 

Light  and  air  in  unstinted  quantities  and  the  highest 
standard  of  cleanliness  that  can  be  maintained  in  a 
public  place,  frequented  by  thousands,  are  considerations 
of  comfort  not  overlooked  by  The  Fair.  These  sanitary 
provisions  are  appreciated  alike  by  the  customers  and 
the  employees. 


I 


Men's  Furnishing  Department 


» 


The  attitude  of  The  Fair  towards  its  workers  is 
suggested  by  its  big  Benevolent  Association  that  has 
been  consistently  developed  and  encouraged  by  the 
management.  This  not  only  pays  sick  benefits  to  all 
employees  who  become  ill,  but  also  death  benefits  de- 
pending upon  the  salary  that  had  been  received  by  the 
employee  involved.  A  visiting  nurse  is  regularly  em- 
ployed to  go  to  the  homes  of  employees  in  case  of  sickness, 
and  a  physician  is  at  the  store  to  give  free  treatment  to 
employees.  The  store  hospital  is,  of  course,  the  head- 
quarters for  the  physician  and  nurses  and  is  maintained 
to  care  for  emergency  cases  among  both  customers  and 
employees. 

The  Benevolent  Association  is  not  wholly  concerned 
with  the  serious  emergencies  in  the  lives  of  employees. 
It  aims  to  provide  social  entertainment  as  well  as  benefits. 
Its  annual  picnic  for  employees  of  The  Fair  and  their 
families  is  an  event  that  often  calls  together  seven 
thousand  persons.  Probably  the  picnic  is  a  bit  distanced 
in  a  social  sense  by  the  Association's  yearly  ball.  That 
of  1915  was  held  at  the  Hotel  LaSalle.  Throughout  the 
season,  the  Benevolent  Association  gives  several  theatre 
parties.  On  these  occasions  the  audience  is  composed 
entirely  of  employees  of  The  Fair  and  their  families 
and  friends. 

Just  recall  for  a  moment  that  E.  J.  Lehmann  saw  a 
vision  of  a  great  retail  trade  based  on  Volume.  It 
is  interesting  to  speculate  upon  what  would  have  been 
his  sensation  if  he  could  have  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the 
definition  that  his  pioneer  Department  Store  gave  to 
this  commercial  world  after  he  was  gone. 


II 


Sporting  Goods  Department 


Here  are  a  few  of  the  record  purchases  of  The  Fair 
that  may  give  some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  store's 
buying  transactions. 

The  Fair  bought  a  shipment  of  twenty  carloads  of 
writing  tablets — probably  the  largest  single  purchase  of 
stationery  ever  made  by  a  retail  store.  This  seems  to 
outclass  even  a  shipment  of  twenty-two  carloads  of  agate 
granite  ware. 

A  single  purchase  of  sporting  goods  made  by  The 
Fair  is  believed  to  have  broken  all  retail  purchase  records 
in  this  line.  It  invoiced  $127,000.00  and  the  transporta- 
tion of  this  shipment — 486  cases  of  goods — required  16 
freight  cars. 

Still  another  purchase  of  unusual  proportions  was 
that  of  4,950  trunks  and  about  35,000  bags  and  tele- 
scopes. The  shipment  of  this  great  purchase  of  travelers' 
supplies  required  17  freight  cars  of  the  largest  type. 

Of  course  the  task  of  keeping  up  this  mighty  volume 
of  incoming  goods  requires  the  services  of  a  picked 
corps  of  men  and  women  who  are  experts  in  their  lines 
and  who  scour  not  only  America  but  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  .France,  Austria,  Switzerland,  Germany  and 
other  foreign  markets  for  merchandise. 

But  the  meaning  of  Volume  as  that  word  to-day 
applies  in  the  transactions  of  The  Fair  is  not  to  be 
had  wholly  from  the  buying  side  of  the  business.  The 
sales  tell  a  wonderful  story  of  achievement  beyond  any- 
thing dreamed  of  by  the  elder  Lehmann  when  he  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  enterprise. 

When  the  bicycle  was  the  real  speed  king.  The  Fair 
sold  as  many  as  one  thousand  of  them  in  a  single  day. 


s 


Toy  Department 


What  is  far  more  remarkable,  it  recently  sold  one  hundred 
motorcycles  in  one  day. 

In  merchandise  of  an  unusual  sort  the  sales  are  often 
staggering  in  their  extent.  For  example,  in  one  sea- 
son The  Fair  sold  forty  thousand  dozen  live  frogs 
for  bait.  Also,  this  store  disposes  of  more  than  twenty- 
thousand  genuine  Harz-Mountain  singing  canaries  in 
a  year.  There  is  scarcely  a  novelty  sold  in  this  store  that 
would  not  afford  almost  as  startling  statistics,  on  the 
score  of  volume,  as  these  two  live  articles. 

Turning  to  more  staple  articles,  there  is  no  trouble 
to  find  striking  figures.  A  single  day's  sales  of  candy 
have  reached  the  remarkable  total  of  thirty  thousand 
pounds. 

The  Fair's  Grocery  Department  is  one  of  the  most 
complete  of  any  in  the  world.  Although  size  of  stocks 
and  variety  of  goods 'tell  a  somewhat  graphic  story,  still, 
The  Fair's  Grocery  Department  is  even  more  famous  for 
its  practical  classifications  of  food  products,  for  the 
cleanliness  maintained  and  for  the  sanitary  methods  of 
handling  groceries,  meats,  vegetables  and  other  edibles. 
An  idea  of  the  size  of  this  great  Grocery  section  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  two  million  pounds  of  sugar 
and  more  than  three  million  pounds  of  flour  have  been 
sold  in  one  year. 

The  means  required  for  the  disbursement  of  goods 
also  gives  a  vivid  idea  of  the  immensity  of  this 
store's  trade.  If  all  the  motor  and  horse  vehicles  used 
by  The  Fair  in  the  delivery  of  its  goods  were  formed 
into  a  "circus  parade,"  with  the  usual  spaces  between 
wagons,  the  caravan  would  be  not  less  than  two  miles 
long.     Delivery  sub-stations  are  maintained  in   every 


I 


"• 


important  section  of  the  city.  The  most  remote  outposts 
of  this  sort  are  at  Hammond,  Indiana;  and  Highland 
Park,  Elmhurst,  Waukegan  and  La  Grange,  in  Illinois. 

Every  device  calculated  to  quicken  the  movement 
of  goods  after  they  have  been  sold,  or  to  save  labor 
in  transferring  them  from  one  part  of  the  store  to  another, 
has  been  provided.  Much  of  the  moving  of  heavy  pack- 
ages in  the  grocery  department,  for  example,  is  done  by 
means  of  mechanical  conveyors.  Then  there  are  three 
kinds  of  vertical  conveyors  for  delivering  packages 
from  the  upper  floors  to  the  basement,  where  all  outgoing 
merchandise  is  assembled  and  dispatched.  Here,  again, 
belt  conveyors  do  much  of  the  labor  involved  in  dis- 
tributing the  packages  into  the  cages  that  represent 
the  various  sections  of  the  city.  From  these  cages  the 
goods  are  placed  in  trucks,  elevated  to  the  sidewalk 
and  loaded  into  wagons  and  motor  trucks  for  direct 
delivery  or  for  forwarding  to  railway  stations  or  delivery 
sub-stations. 

How  successfully  The  Fair  has  developed  from  its 
almost  obscure  beginning  in  that  little  sixteen-foot 
store  on  State  Street,  and  how  it  has  advanced  the  big 
idea  of  ^'Centralized  Shopping,"  may  be  noted  in  the 
great  number  of  different  departments  now  flourishing 
under  this  one  roof.  At  present  these  departments  num- 
ber almost  one  hundred,  among  which  are  stores  devoted  to 


Pictures  and  Picture  Framing 
Trunks  and  Suit  Cases 
Baby  Carriages 
Musical  Instruments 
Stationery  and  OflSce  Supplies 
Printing  and  Engraving 
Toys  and  Dolls 


Jewelry 

Silverware 

Watches  and  Clocks 

Cutlery 

Leather  Goods 

Optical  Goods 

Laces  and  Embroideries 


Delivery  Automobiles 


Veilings 

Ladies  Neckwear 

Gloves 

Silks  and  Dress  Goods 

Wash  Goods 

Hosiery 

Ribbons 

Umbrellas  and  Parasols 

Artists'  Materials 

Fancy  Goods 

Linens 

Handkerchiefs 

Shoes 

Groceries 

Meats 

Bakery  Goods 

Seeds  and  Bulbs 

Cigars  and  Tobaccos 

Kitchen  Utensils 

Hardware  and  Tools 

Wooden  and  Willow  Ware 

Refrigerators 

Stoves 

Garden  Implements 

Lamps  and  Electroliers 

Paints  and  Brushes 

China 

Glassware 

Bric-a-Brac 

Birds 

Carpets  and  Rugs 

Curtains 

Bedding 

Upholstery 


Furniture 

Underwear 

Corsets 

Women's  Negligees 

Infants'  Wear 

Men's  and  Boys'  Furnishings 

Men's  and  Boys*  Clothing 

Men's  and  Boys'  Hats  and  Caps 

Sporting  Goods 

Automobile  Supplies 

Camera  Supplies 

Harness  and  Horse  Goods 

Candies  and  Favors 

Ice  Cream  and  Soda  Water 

Women's  Ready-to- Wear 

Apparel 
Misses'  and  Children's 

Ready-to- Wear  Apparel 
Millinery 
Notions 

Sewing  Machines 
Dress  Forms 
Drug  and  Toilet  Goods 
Drug  Sundries 
Sheet  Music 
Books 
Wall  Paper 
Hair  Goods 
Patterns 
Religious  Goods 
Cut  Flowers 
Trusses 
Restaurant 
Photo  Studio 


' 


as  well  as  a  broad  selection  of  low-priced  Merchandise 
in  the  Bargain  Basement. 

Perhaps  no  array  of  figures  can  so  vividly  interpret 
the    full    meaning    of    forty    years  of   Fair   merchan- 


dising as  a  few  moments  spent  on  the  ground  floor  of  this 
store  watching  the  great  human  current  move  through  the 
channel  of  the  main  aisle.  Here  is  Volume  beyond 
the  wildest  dream  of  the  man  who  saw  a  vision  of  Cen- 
tralized Shopping  and  its  possibilities!  Adams  Street 
is  hardly  a  more  important  thoroughfare  between  State 
and  Dearborn  Streets  than  is  the  great  central  aisle  of 
The  Fair. 

There  is  hardly  another  point  of  vantage  from  which 
one  may  see  so  clearly  that  panorama  of  the  marvelous 
changes  in  Chicago's  **Down  Town/'  scarcely  another 
spot  from  which  one  may  get  so  graphic  a  view  of  the 
great  modem  developments  of  retail  trade  as  here  where 
so  much  retail  history  has  been  made ! 

One  cannot  stand  near  the  big  State  Street  doors  of 
this  great  establishment,  watching  the  human  tide  that 
flows  back  and  forth,  without  a  vivid  realization  of 
the  fact  that  The  Fair  is  the  People's  Store.  Young 
and  old,  rich  and  poor  alike  find  their  way  through  these 
hospitable  doorways  into  the  store  that  has  been  a  friend 
to  three  generations  of  Chicagoans.  Here  everyone  is 
welcome,  whether  buyer  or  visitor  — here  everyone  is  at 
home.  The  friendliness  and  hospitality  with  which  the 
founder  filled  his  first  little  shop  have  gone  hand  in  hand 
with  the  growth  of  that  shop  to  the  great  institution  of 
to-day. 

Here,  on  the  corners  of  State,  Adams  and  Dearborn 
Streets,  this  great  monument  stands  as  a  full  realization 
of  the  hopes  and  ambitions  of  him  who  founded  this 
institution  in  a  little,  one-story,  sixteen-foot  store,  just 
forty  years  ago. 


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